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Show I , WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS j Mac Arthur Braves Fire on Borneo; Predict Another Bumper Harvest; Pare Army Budget to 39 Billion i ' a cH by Western Newspaper Union. 1 (KIJITOK'S NOIK: When opinions are expressed In these columns, ihey are those el i Western Newspaper Lnions news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I ; i ; . ' i i,-r ; ; Jjn Taking off time from arduous duties in the Pacific, 2nd marine division divi-sion vets stage mud fight In rest camp, with the game calling for one Bide to put the other out of the gooshy pit. Boys will be boys, so rugged marine in foreground tries to hold opponent under mud. PACIFIC: 'Mac's' Show "He'll do for me!" Thus spoke toughened Australian vets from Tobruk and El Alamein upon seeing swank Gen. Douglas MacArthur swagger up a battered macadam beach road to the front of a column exploiting an Allied landing in British North Borneo. Per usual, "Mac" was the whole show during his inspection of the operations, op-erations, which further cut off the Japs from the material resources of their early conquests. As cool as a cucumber, the general stood his ground during an exchange of small arms fire while his aides dived for cover, and his shirt remained dry while those of his companions dripped from tropical sweat. With Australians heading the charge inland , after heavy U. S. and Aussie aerial and naval bombardment bom-bardment had driven the Japs from beach positions, Allied troops were well on their way to conquest of the third biggest island in the world, with ,the latest landing supplementing supplement-ing a previous invasion of the southeastern coasts Emergency Powers Quickened by the destructive American aerial raids on Japan and the gradual U. S. advance to the home islands, the embattled embat-tled empire's powers - that -be called upon the enemy diet (parliament) to relinquish its powers to the war cabinet for government by decree during "the most critical situation in the history of the nation." Although Emperor Hirohito himself supported the move, diet members debated the measure with vigor, seeking to assure themselves that any surrender of authority was only of a temporary tem-porary nature. As a sop, Premier Pre-mier Suzuki declared that the diet would set up a committee to confer with the cabinet on war measures. Designed to permit the cabinet cabi-net to act quickly to relieve damage caused by Allied operations, opera-tions, the government's program coincided with the establishment of independent administrations in all of the home islands in the event of their isolation during forthcoming campaigns. CROP OUTLOOK: 'Above Average' Because most of the intended acreage will be planted and early season gains have not been offset by recent bad weather, the U. S. can look forward to another bumper food harvest in 1945, the department of agriculture reported. Volume of crops is expected to be "well above average" despite one of the coldest Mays on record, with deleterious rains in some sections sec-tions being matched by local drouths in the southwest and dry weather in the southeast. With an indicated winter wheat crop of 729,255,000 bushels and a spring wheat harvest of 287,397,000, the total of 1,084.652,000 bushels would represent the largest ever produced, USDA said. Oats and hay production should be above average and rye output good. A record crop i of early Irish potatoes was forecast ! along with another bumper harvest i of fruits and vegetables. Pushed to the limit whenever weather permitted, the corn crop is two-thirds planted, USDA said, with the grain lacking color in Iowa and other states affected by cold and wetness. Car Shortage With winter wheat harvesting well underway and local grain elevators chock full, the southwest is suffering suffer-ing from a critical shortage of freight cars to move the bumper crop. As a result, many farmers farm-ers have been compelled to dump the wheat on the ground. Unable to create the usual reserve re-serve of from 20,000 to 30,000 freight cars on elevator sidings because be-cause of the heavy war -traffic, railroads rail-roads are striving to relieve the transport pinch by pressing gondolas gon-dolas and stock and refrigerator cars into service. With the redeployment of men and materials through this country for the Pacific war coming on top of the switch of the bulk of transport trans-port from the east to the longer west coast lines, the carriers' problems prob-lems will be especially complex this year. CANADA: Election Returns Canadian Prime Minister for 18 of the last 24 years, stubby MacKenzie King led his Liberal party to a decisive victory in the dominion's general elections. with a coalition of the Independent Liberals assuring his forces of a majority ma-jority in the parliament parlia-ment of 245 members. mem-bers. Return of King and his party served as a vote of approval approv-al for their stand on largely maintaining MacKenzie the dominion's over- King seas army on a i volunteer basis, while John Bracken and his Progressive Conservative forces' comparatively poor showing tended to repudiate their advocacy of conscripting men for the war against'the Japanese. While the Liberals and Progressive Progres-sive Conservatives ran one-two in the heated race, the Cooperative Commonwealth federation trailed far behind, with CCF Chieftain M. J. Coldwell attributing the lag "out of confusion created by the communists." com-munists." ARMY BUDGET: Cut 25 In a budget that reflected reduced needs following V-E Day, stretching stretch-ing of some expenditures over a period pe-riod of two years, and conservative contracting in the face of uncertainty uncertain-ty over the duration of the Pacific war, Pres. Harry S. Truman called for an appropriation of 39 billion dollars for the war department for the fiscal year ending in June, 1946. Based upon the reduction of the army from 8,320,000 men to 6,968,-000, 6,968,-000, the new budget is 25 per cent smaller than the current one of 52 billion dollars. In addition to covering the financing fi-nancing of the war against Japan for the year beginning July 1, the budget also provides for expenditures expendi-tures for munitions and equipment to be delivered through December, 1946, and for heavier types of aircraft air-craft due in June, 1947. Whereas contracts for material heretofore have exceeded expenditures, it is now planned they will balance, thus avoiding the creation of huge backlogs back-logs in the event of a sudden end to the Pacific conflict. EUROPE: Map Reparations Use of Germany's resources, both 1 human and material, for restoration of war damage, came to the fore ' with an American delegation's flight j to Moscow to discuss war repara- ' tions with Russia and Britain. Keynoting the U. S. viewpoint be- j fore taking off for the Red capital j as the American delegation's head. Oil Operator Edwin W. Pauley of ! Beverly Hills, Calif., declared that the Allies cannot make the same mistake of World War I, of loaning , the Germans money to rebuild their j industries so as to produce goods in return for reparations. Asserting that such a policy only enabled the Germans to reestablish their great industrial machine, Pauley said that this time the Allies must 'seek to divert their energies to other channels, indicating accept- ance of Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau's proposal for converting convert-ing the country into primarily an agrarian state. Since Pauley said that the U. S. does not expect to receive appreciable appreci-able reimbursement for its war costs, heavy American demands are regarded as a trading point for moderating astronomical claims of the other Allies. France alone has asked for reparations totalling 40 billion dollars. Love at First Sight To James Augustus Cooper, 101, and Mrs. Julia Wesputet, 62, it was love at first sight, with the old Civil war vet married to the plump little widow in Racine, Wis., after a six-week romance. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper sample wedding wed-ding cake. Said the new Mrs. Cooper: ". . . Its lonesome living aone, and besides, he'& still very active for his age." Replied the beaming bridegroom: "You're durn lootin. I cut 1 4 trees since yesterday morning. . . . Fourteen children, which my women bore unto me, are dead and buried, but Vm still kickin7. I always say it was the first 100 years that were the hardest." VET CARE: Called Inadequate With a spokesman asserting that the veterans administration presently present-ly designed to handle the cases of 5,000,000 men may have to eventually eventual-ly attend to 18,000,000, the American Legion joined with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in calling for a general gen-eral overhauling of the whole bureau bu-reau to furnish efficient and adequate ade-quate service. Chief complaint of both organizations organiza-tions was in the care afforded G.I.s at vet hospitals, with both groups reporting overcrowding, staff shortages, short-ages, low salaries and red tape in many instances. With care found inadequate in 47 per cent of the centers, cen-ters, standards of vet hospitals only compared with those of state, county coun-ty and municipal institutions in the localities. With Gen. Omar Bradley taking over as veterans administrator, the Legion and VFW proposed a comprehensive com-prehensive program for correcting present conditions, asking for increased in-creased bed capacity in vet hospitals; more authority for hospital directors to -procure sufficient help and supplies; sup-plies; more intelligent segregation of patients to promote speedier recovery; re-covery; swift and unprejudiced handling han-dling of complaints, and replacement replace-ment of army personnel with civilians civil-ians or establishment of army personnel per-sonnel on a civilian basis. BUND: Chiefs Freed Sentenced to five years' imprisonment imprison-ment by a federal district court for conspiring to advise members of the organization to evade the draft, 24 officials of the German - American Bund were freed by the Supreme court on the grounds that the government gov-ernment failed to prove their guilt within the meaning of the draft law. Though the defendants were convicted con-victed on charges of conspiracy to distribute copies of a bund command com-mand asserting that the selective selec-tive service law infringed their rights and they should refuse military mili-tary duty if they could, the high tribunal ruled that the evidence was insufficient to establish their guilt. Writing a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Stone declared the conclusion con-clusion "seems inescapable that petitioners . . . counseled evasion of military service, and that the jury's verdict is therefore sustained by the evidence. ..." FARM TRUCKS The office of surplus property of the department of- commerce has announced that periodical surveys will be made throughout the country to determine areas where trucks are urgently needed to prevent impairment impair-ment of farm production. These areas will be allocated reasonable quantities of available surplus trucks under a sales agreement with dealers that they will resell only to farmers and farm cooperative associations, asso-ciations, within the designated areas with required certificates. |